Strawberry

I moved to Strawberry in 1950 and lived up on the top of Ricardo Road where
we had a great view of undeveloped land and waterfront. To see it now, you
would never believe the change. I also have wonderful memories of lots of
open space, fields, farm land, dairies and wildflowers. We were always
playing out of doors. I remember the same baseball games that Susan Heick
wrote about. Suzy Rosse and I used to meet at "the tree" half way between
her house and mine, and we also spent a lot of our time out on Strawberry
Point. Once when there was a grassfire my mom had to have the firemen drive
her out there to get us home safely. Suzy and I both remember riding our
bikes out to the point and home again past the nuns' house. I always felt
intimidated by those nuns because I came from a family who "didn't believe in
God." I thought I was the only kid who's family was like that until I met
Suzy, and, boy, were we the united front when we discovered that about each
other. From then on we did everything together including going to Strawberry
School dressed like Laura Ingalls Wilder in Little House on the Prairie. When
I first moved to Strawberry we were bused everywhere to school. We attended
almost every school in Mill Valley. Years later when I went back to teach in
Mill Valley as an adult, I thought it pretty funny how worried parents were
about busing.

When I look back I remember lots of mischief, the kind that never hurt any
one. We used to trespass into all the houses that were being constructed
when the workmen went home. Once when I missed the school bus I walked all
the way to Alto School by myself, got there late and my mother got a phone
call from the principal. Once Diane Hegg and I got up in the middle of the
night, climbed out my bedroom window and walked all the way to Mill Valley
and back, hiding behind bushes whenever headlights approached. Looking back
on it, I am sure we were nuts! My brother, Larry who was two years older,
taught me and Marilyn Lincoln to drive BEFORE we had learner permits. We
used to drive around the Tiburon Pennisula and Strawberry. That came to an
abrupt halt when I spun out the new yellow Studebaker station wagon on a wet
road and bent the rear axle. My dad, was terrific - never even raised his
voice, but said I would pay for it with my babysitting money and I did!
After that he took over the driving lessons. The amazing thing is that when
I finally got my driver's lisence on my 16th birthday, my parents let me take
the car out that very night, a "school night." Those were the days.

When my mom got tired of driving us to and from Tam, we moved to West
Blithedale Canyon on Coronet Avenue when I was 16. From then on I got to
experience the "other" Mill Valley, the wonderful downtown area as it was
then. The experiences I had living close to the mountain have stayed with me
all my life. I remember lots of hiking. Francie Oman and I had a wonderful
time hiking and sketching. I am still a hiker and outdoors person which I am
sure got its start on those trails. And...I remember fondly, Muir League and
lots and lots of music. Singing and playing guitar with Nancy Piver . I
still have my songs collected along the way in all my friends' handwriting.

I can't help thinking how lucky we all were to grow up in such a wonderful
place. I was lucky enough to experience some of that again when I lived in
Mill Valley in the 90's and my daughter graduated from Tam too. Who says
"you can never go back?"
Nancy Williams Brown